As the weather is getting colder, the meals are getting hotter. The grocery store had pork tenderloin on sale this week, and for me, that only leads to one thing: pozole.

Pozole is a mexican soup that is 100% delicious and warming. my mom was first served this soup when she visited friends in arizona. She loved it so much, she brought the recipe home and made it for us. We instantly fell in love.

There are a lot of variations on pozole, but most of them consist of a tomato-based base, but I prefer a spicy, chicken-broth based base, so I do not add any tomatoes. My mom does, though, and it is delicious.

there are three things that bind all pozole recipes: pork, hominy, and green chile. As far as the pork goes, I buy what is on sale, but I will admit the best i have ever tasted was made with boneless short ribs (yum). hominy is a corn/maize that has been treated in an alkaline mixture. Grind it up and you have maza (used for tamales... yum yum yum). I love it because it is like big, dense kernels of corn that have been soaked in salt. Finally, I always used canned green chile, but if you have access to fresh, use it!

When i make pozole, I always start by browning the chunks of pork in my dutch oven for the layer of depth.

I then remove the pork, and cook the onions and garlic. I don't want them to compete with the green chile, so cooking them does mellow their sharpness. After this I throw everything in the crockpot and let it sit for as long as it takes for me to dig in.

Tip: always top pozole with lime and cilantro, but it is also great to add avocado and tortillas.

Green chile pork pozoleyield: 4 servings total time: 1-8 hours

ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

2+ pounds pork (any cut will do), cut in large chunks

1 white/yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

8+ oz. diced green chile

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup water

32 oz (give or take) white hominy (sold in a can by the canned corn)

1 green onion, cut up

2 tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

(Sometimes if it's not spicy enough, I add cayenne pepper)

top with cilantro, lime slices, avocado, tortillas.

directions:

heat dutch oven or large skillet over medium heat with 1-2 tablespoon oil. Add pork to pan and allow to brown on all sides. (Pork will not be cooked through). remove pork from pan. Add remaining oil and add onions and garlic. Cook until soft. (the longer it cooks the less potent it is). Add 1/2 cup of chicken broth to pan/pot to help scrape off browned bits (flavor) from pork.

Put pork, onion mixture, and all remaining ingredients into crock pot. (I typically drain just the top layer of liquid out of the hominy cans. keep some liquid--flavor). Allow to cook on warm/low heat until pork is cooked through. This usually takes at least 45 minutes. The longer the soup sits in the pot, the more flavorful it becomes.

If you do not have a crock pot, keep mixture in dutch oven, lower heat to low, and add all ingredients. Continue with instructions for crock-pot.